Chris Botti's overnight success story has been years in the making. The respected studio musician has toured relentlessy as a performer the last decade.

Written by

Steve Rothaus
| McClatchy-Tribune Information Services

Superstar jazz trumpeter Chris Botti attributes his later-in-life success to the "needle in the haystack theory."

"There are so many unbelievably talented musicians scattered all over the world," says Botti, 51, whose breakthrough album, "When I Fall in Love," happened 10 years ago. "To be able to play an instrument and have a lot of people recognize that sound, that's a whole heckuva a lot of other stuff going on. That's kind of like luck, or someone looking down on me being very nice. ...